Item Detail
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Virginia Tech
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Located in Blacksburg, VA
Suburban
Public -
29300
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7083
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Governing/managing body: Library
Program partners
• Partners internal to the library include: Publishing group, Collections & Technical Services, IT Services, library’s Open Knowledge Committee
• Outreach partners include Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and the university’s Ed Tech department
Funding
• Library budget
• External raised funds
• Grants through VIVA -
Grant program
Copyright and open licensing
Rights reversion and open publishing
Publishing is part of the library but not part of the department housing the OER initiative
Workshops
Library committee for OER
Open Ed symposium
Faculty consultations
Collaborative external grant seeking -
This is one campus where a whole position is dedicated to OER, which has been a great benefit to the growth of the program. This person spearheads connecting with faculty interested in converting course materials to the use of OER. Collaboration with the publishing group, with multi-format publishing, is also done through this position. The dean of libraries completely supports this position and the work done.
Funding for grants has either come from VIVA or “through crowdfunding, or external grants that I've gotten for projects with faculty for specific work.” The internal grant funding is “for creating or customizing resources to fit your situation.” The program requires public release under an open license. This program takes that to heart and there are conversations to this effect with faculty. It is important for faculty to know what they are getting into, especially if they want to create a new text.
There are various workshops given on the campus including OEN (review a textbook in your discipline), adopting an open text, and adapting or creating a text for your course. The latter workshop was developed because faculty “have gone to an open textbook adoption workshop, and they then say, ‘I want to write my own' … the adoption workshop.” Public events are recorded and available to be streamed.
The OER position is part of the Scholarly Communication department. However, the library does separately leverage resources by purchasing multiuser eBooks and course reserves. In addition, they rely on VIVA for some of the eBook purchases. VIVA is a great partner in promoting affordability. The library liaisons trust the OER director, which is evident as liaisons and others“ bring me projects and say, ‘I have somebody who wants to talk to you’. That happens more often than not.”
The campus Open Knowledge Committee exists to coordinate among all things “open.” This includes events for Open Education Week and Open Access Week. This collaboration is essential for events like the “Open Education Symposium” because “I couldn't do it without help.”
Even though there is nothing official in the rank advancement procedure “there are guidelines for OER that say the university needs to decide where this fits in P&T.” The campus is also aware of “open access regarding research” as is demonstrated by a new Open Access policy incorporated into the institution's Intellectual Property Policy.